Thanksgiving

**The following post of daring ingenuity and all-around cleverness has been brought to you by the one and only Kikita.
I've been temping.'Nuff said.
Actually, there's so much more to say.I've done temp work before. I've worked all kinds of places. In fact, there was even a time when I worked as a "Staffing Agent" ...

It will go down in family history as The Year We Hauled the Red Chair Down to the Park.
Here's how the whole thing went down:
Eric and I went on a pre-Thanksgiving cruise (on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas, which I still have to write about, but that's not important right now). That very same (pre-Thanksgiving) weekend, my son, ...

My kids are all gone this Thanksgiving weekend. And I'm okay with that. No, really. I am O-KAY.
I don't know when this cataclysmic change happened inside of me. But I know that it did.
Adam, whom I haven't seen for months because he moved to Northern California, was here for a few days and took Lucy and Jonathan back with him and ...

I want to thank you all for your kind words and good wishes.
I love celebrating blog birthdays because unlike regular birthdays, I get to give stuff away.
It makes me so happy to be able to give back to you, even in this small way. I so want you to know how much I appreciate that you read and enjoy my stories and misadventures.
To choose winners, I ...

The following post was written by Kikita, whose appreciation for bananas has led to endless laughter and entertainment.
I can't tell you where or how it all started, but it started. I can only guess it happened on facebook because that's where most things happen these days.Let me be clear about something . . . I am not particularly fond ...

So we went to Vegas and Boulder City the week before Thanksgiving to see the fabulous Tormé Sings Tormé show. It was absolutely delicious and satisfying in every way.
First of all Steve March Tormé's tribute to his incredibly talented dad (Mel Tormé) was both exhilarating to watch and yet tugged at the heartstrings as he sang while ...

Every year about this time, Amy and I start making plans.
Of course, these involve places to go and things to do, and movies to make! You see, my daughter is an amazing film editor. (A little known fact, unless you've been reading my blog for the past three years and have been paying close attention, but that's not important right ...

It's a special Monday, Pre-Thanksgiving Edition of Marta's Cuban American Kitchen.
I have been trying, without much success, to declare November
"National Guava Month." Sadly, no one seems to take me seriously about
this, but that's not important right now.
I've taken up the cause on my own. And today I'm all ...

There's so much that I have to be thankful for.
There's a Facebook prompt going around now that reads like this:
Every day this month until Thanksgiving, think of one thing that you are thankful for and post it as your status. "Today I am thankful for..."
I invite you to take that challenge. If possible, see if you can also ...

(Inspired by The Simple Woman's Daybook by way of Ali Edwards.)
Outside my window...Serious sunshine. Purple and white cosmos in my garden almost as tall as me.
I am thinking...about that stack of recipes I have that I want to try. There are old-school bocaditos I want to make and a Flan Cake I have been itching to try. (I think today is that ...

One of the gifts we give our family for Christmas each year is a movie.
My daughter, Amy Kikita studied film for years and is brilliant when it comes to movie-making and film-editing.
The process is neither quick nor easy. We spend hours, days, and weeks listening to music and looking at pictures and watching video footage of old home ...

Happy first day of December!
In our little corner of The Bubble that is Orange County, California, (I know bubbles don't have corners - it's a metaphor....but that's not important right now) it seems that it has become mandatory to decorate for Christmas in the moments following Thanksgiving.
Seriously. The bird has barely hit ...

I feel weird.
I am not cooking, nor am I hosting my big, fat, Cuban family for Thanksgiving this year.
The hostess honor falls to my sister, Alina who, I should just add right here, is a wonderful hostess with a much, much bigger house, but that's not important right now.
And we Darbys are going to dine with Eric's family, which ...

The cousins range in ages from seventeen to forty-two.
After Thanksgiving dinner last week:The cousins didn't want to leave, so they didn't want to leave.The cousins wanted to watch a movie, so they wanted to watch a movie.The cousins wanted to try the Creme de Vie, so they wanted to try the Creme de Vie.The cousins wanted to spend the night, so ...

I know you were wondering what we did with all those wounded apples from Thanksgiving.
Well, wonder no more.
The Galas (those are the red and yellow ones) went to my mom's and she reported that they are now two jars of delicious homemade applesauce.
The Granny Smiths (the green ones) went into a pie. A good ole homemade Crunch Top ...